Something happened to me last night, and nuns did it

Published on 5 June 2009 by Sister Jon Lane

So I finally made it to the theatre last night to see Peter Schneider's musical version of Sister Act. Avid followers of Show and Stay and Spotlight might realise at this point that they haven't heard of Jon Lane (that's me) very much. That's because I don't write for this site that often - I prefer to (no, let me change that to the boss prefers me to) write for our sister company, Play and Stay.

But for one night only, I decided to brave the streets of London and see whether or not my dislike of musical theatre was well founded.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. And those of you who know me, know I hate being wrong. The show was excellent.

The theatre was exquisite, it really was. I had only been to the Noel Coward Theatre before, but that was nothing compared to the Palladium. Large, airy, great sounds in seat H34 and full of pretty finishing touches to the facades.

But nobody goes to the West End just to look at the theatre, so on to the set.

The set, for me, was the most impressive part of the show. It went up, it went down, it even had rotating sections in the middle and conveyor belts around the outside. It made set changes an interesting affair as I sat there and tried to figure just how it all worked. 10/10 to Klara Zieglerova for set design.

The music was just okay, nothing more. The reason I have always disliked musical theatre stems mostly from shows like Oliver! and The Sound of Music, when the leading lad/lady launches into a solo before the entire chorus join in. How do they know the words? How do they know what said lad/lady is thinking? I'm sorry, I just don't get it. And that's probably the reason why I was able to handle Avenue Q - there were no gushing chorus moments, just people and their puppets singing their thoughts, entirely solo.

But yes, the music. A change from the original film score, the Palladium's Sister Act was full of 70s funk and disco grooves. In spite of what Sister Jonathan says, I was not tapping my foot. The rest of the theatre most certainly was though, and at points they were even clapping along. Perhaps my narrow-minded opinion is not worth listening to on this subject.

The last thing that I have got to say about Sister Act was that the cast was (on the whole) superb. Leading lady Deloris (played by Patina Miller) pulled off the role perfectly. A new star is born. This is definitely not the last we will hear from her. Playing Mother Superior was Sheila Hancock and she too was amazing. She pulled off the "I've just sucked on a lemon" face particularly well but still managed to inject enough humour when needed. A+ to Hancock for her role.

Other notable cast members included Julia Sutton who played Sister Mary Lazarus so well that you'd think she was actually born Mary Lazarus, and Ako Mitchell who played the timid desk police officer "Sweaty" Eddie with added shyness.

Unfortunately, Shank (played by Chris Jarman), was memorable for all the wrong reasons. More of a Shaft kind of man than a Mafia boss - I can quite honestly say that I was glad every time he left the stage. His goons, however, did grow on me by the end of the show. Their hilariously funny Lady in the Black Dress won me over and made me realise that they can sing after all.

And so the show came to an end in an all-singing, all-dancing carnival of glittering dresses and swanky white shoes. Normally, I would despise this sort of thing - it reminds me of those cheap panto performances at your local theatre (oh yes it does!). But, for the first time ever, I found myself genuinely clapping in appreciation. Whilst Sister Act had its flaws, it was incredibly entertaining. I LOLed a couple of times and I even woke up singing Take Me to Heaven this morning.

Something happened to me last night. Something very strange. I think I finally got into musicals.